In The Wild
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: Paige glances at Walter and smiles in amusement. Walter grins back. The look lingers. Paige bites her lip and looks away. (Includes setting spoilers for the end of season three.)


**So this came to me after looking at all the behind the scenes stuff we've gotten the past few days that gives pretty big hints as to what sort of things are going to happen at the end of season three. So I'm taking that basic idea and writing what my brain came up with last night. I don't think this is actually what's going to end up happening but I think it'd be kind of fun if it does.**

 **Also I have no idea why I wrote in this tense it just happened.**

* * *

Paige is sore.

She's never thought about this, of all things. Nuclear war? Sure. Falling ill with a disease that has no cure? She's had that dream. Being trapped in a radioactive environment? She's lived it. And she's also been in some pretty crazy situations involving planes.

However, the classic, almost cliché trapped – on – a – deserted – island storyline isn't one she's ever really imagined happening.

Happy has been working on a radio signal. They managed to salvage a bit of the plane and she's throwing herself into that project like their lives...well.

Sylvester has spent the past week talking about how it was recently discovered that Amelia Earhart's plane actually went down on a small island and she lived off the land for a while before surrendering to the elements, all while trying to call for help. Paige knows talking about his fears helps him. Listening to him talk about his fears does not help her.

She feels bad. She's supposed to help him through his anxieties, through his idiosyncrasies and everything else that normal usually scoffed at. That has been her job since before she worked for Scorpion. It has been her job ever since the chalk. But she can't listen to this. Thankfully, Cabe is sitting next to him in the sand, both of them facing the ocean, as they have been every morning they've all been stranded here.

Ralph appears over the hill, barefoot, arms and legs shockingly toned and tanned for just eight days, running toward her with a smile on his face. Something is in his hands. Oddly enough, he seems to be as close to thriving here as any of them are going to get. The first night, she'd wrapped her arms around him, holding him closer than he probably would have liked, terrified to even let him be beyond her touch. Now, he sleeps on the beach, above the tide, the sound of the water lapping at the shore lulling him into a sleep that only her voice has previously granted him.

"Mom," he says. "Look at this snake. Toby says it's a..."

Paige does not want that snake any closer to her than it already is, but at least if Toby let him catch it, it can't be contagious.

God. Her son is running around with Toby, catching animals and not even caring about the scabs on his face, sustained in the crash. His feet are so tough he ran over a prickly vine the other day and wasn't even in any pain. She had thought he was an indoor cat and now he's turning into Francis Robinson right before her eyes.

There's shouting from the beach. Paige gets up, grabs Ralph's hand, and he drops the snake as their feet dig through the deep sand and gain traction on the thin, wiry grass that appears in patches on the rise right before the dip down to the water.

Happy and Walter are shouting. Toby is jumping up and down. The color returns to her face as Paige squeezes Ralph's hand. She knows what they're going to say when they approach.

Happy and Cabe have made contact with the United States government. They're saved.

* * *

Paige isn't sure if she ever thought they'd be on the island forever – after all, Scorpion hasn't failed yet, at least not at something this major – but she still feels a rush of relief when the first rescue helicopter lands and a medic jumps out. There's room for four of them on this one, and she, Ralph, Walter, and Sylvester board only when they see the second one appear in the distance. "We're right behind you," Cabe says, as Toby slings an arm around Happy's shoulder and kisses her cheek. The medic is staying behind to look at Cabe's swollen ankle. It isn't serious – Paige has seen Cabe come through things a lot tougher than that – but the medic insists. Ignoring her, Cabe smiles as he continues. "Get that kid back to where he feels safe."

"Ralphie has been super brave," Sylvester points out.

"He isn't the kid I'm referring to."

Paige glances at Walter and smiles in amusement. Walter grins back. The look lingers. Paige bites her lip and looks away. _This was a bad idea._

The helicopter takes off. Sylvester grips the edge of his seat. "Is anyone else kinda freaking out over this? I mean, last time we were in the air it didn't really work out."

"Think statistics, Sylvester," Paige says soothingly. "You said the odds of being in one crash are what, something like one in eleven million? I don't know math like you do, but the odds have to be so much higher for a second one. And two consecutive? As impossible as you can get." She reaches out and takes his hand, wanting to distract herself from how her and Walter's knees keep bumping in this closed space. "It's going to be okay, Sylvester. I promise."

Ralph rests his head on her shoulder and closes his eyes. He's tired. He enjoyed the island because it was an adventure, but she can see that he's glad it's over. She slides her other arm around his waist and tips her head to rest against his. Across the tiny space, Walter smiles, then frowns, clears his throat, and looks away. Paige closes her eyes.

* * *

They arrive home on a Thursday and it's a good thing that Walter suggests they all just wait until Monday to start working again because he'd have had a mutiny on his hands otherwise. Paige is glad for a couple days of space – it will make it easier for everything to go back to normal. She wonders if this is Walter's logic, too.

She spends most of Thursday night and Friday alternating between her bed, the bath tub, and emphatically thanking the delivery girl for the wonderful food that came hot and completely ready to eat. "Yes..." the girl had said the first time, looking confused. She didn't say _that is the point of delivery,_ but Paige knew she was thinking it. She supposes she did state the obvious.

Ralph is glued to his laptop this entire time, aside from when they're eating, and she doesn't even care. As much as she wondered over her boy genius running around on the island as if his best friend was named Baloo she really does prefer him like this, in his intellectual element and most importantly, _safe_.

On Saturday she leaves the apartment, briefly, to run her last check over to the bank because it seems every bill she's ever had is due on Tuesday. She wonders what would have happened if she hadn't come back. She shakes the thought from her mind. It doesn't matter.

She actually cooks dinner that night, just pasta, but it feels good to be doing things for herself again – in her normal environment. Normalcy. Normalcy is important. She keeps telling herself this. The island was an experience, but they weren't on the island anymore. Now, there would certainly be an adjustment period, but eventually things will go back to how they were.

Ralph goes to bed shortly after dinner, having gotten up early to go with her to the bank. She ruffles his hair when he says goodnight. It has lost the stiff and grimy feel of the salt water. Hers just about has, too. When his door clicks closed, Paige returns to the kitchen. She's not thirsty, but she pours herself a large glass of water, just because it's there, and heads for the couch.

She's not even through the first show on the DVR when there's a knock at the door. Paige groans inwardly. She's not ready to deal with interaction that isn't planned. The bank had been a baby step. She has too much on her mind and she needs the rest of the weekend to recuperate, to refocus herself and prepare for going into work where things are going to be the same even though there is no way everything can get back to how it was before. How could it?

She gets up at the second knock and crosses the room, stepping into her slippers before continuing to the door.

It's Walter.

She turns slightly pink. "...hi."

"Hi." He fidgets, shoving his hands in his pockets and biting his lower lip as he looks at her.

Paige bites her own lip. "Uh..."

"I know," he blurts out. "I know we said...I know we said j – just on the island. I know that's what we said. But..."

She pulls him to her and captures his lips between hers so quickly that even though this is why he came, she still hears a grunt of surprise.

* * *

 **The end.**


End file.
